About/Videos
What we are about:
Neema Villag
e began primarily as a rescue center for abandoned, orphaned and at risk babies in Arusha, Tanzania, East Africa. Since 2012, hundreds of babies, have been rescued and most of those have either been adopted through the Tanzania Social Welfare System or returned safely to an extended family member. We try to get the babies into a home by age two.
As God led Neema into more ways to help, classes, reading and writing, English, sewing, computer, group therapy and Bible classes for women who had been abandoned were added. The Sewing classes and computer classes are always well attended. MAP (Mothers Against Poverty) is Neema’s program to set women up in small businesses. It is a free program and not a loan program.
Realizing that many of the babies who came to Neema had lost their mothers in childbirth, a program to teach traditional birthers out in remote villages better ways to help deliver babies safely was begun. Since many Maasai babies are orphaned when their very young mother dies in childbirth, a program to reach young women called GIFT (Girls Informed For Tomorrow) was begun.
GIFT teaches young women to wait for marriage and having babies and encourages them to stay in school. 
Many women and babies are abandoned by their families when a handicapped baby is born. A top notch Rehabilitation Center for special needs babies was begun. By God’s Abundant Grace Neema village was given a water well rig and a soccer field for community outreach. Many people are coming to Christ through these two outreach programs.
Through one of Neema’s board members Neema also supports a small local kindergarten. Volunteers love to go to the little school to read the big Bible Books,
Last year Neema began an outreach to men, teaching men their Godly responsibilities in the home and to their families. Since men who desert their families are the root of most of the problems it was time. Two hundred men are now coming to these seminars. For now we are having four seminars for men in a year. In the future we hope to reach thousands with the men’s conferences using the soccer field.
It almost makes us dizzy to see all God is doing at Neema Village!
The men’s conferences fill the room with men seeking God’s guidance and help to lead their families. This program costs Neema Village $4,000 USD.
“Faraja (Encouragement) Lifeline”
In recent months a project of compassion developed to help women struggling with the loneliness of trying to raise a special needs baby after she has been abandoned by her family.
Faraja Lifeline is a support group now meeting every month at Neema Village with a full day program of speakers, counseling, medical help, and Biblical teaching for these moms of handicapped babies. Their lives are changed as they realize they are not alone, that there are others experiencing what they are going through and that God has never abandoned them. Below is a photo of moms with special needs babies meeting in the Preslar conference center.
Who knows what else the future holds!
Our Ultimate Goal:
We are in Africa not to just feed and cloth babies and get moms into successful businesses, and dig water wells, as important as those things are, we are about the business of getting Jesus into the everyday lives of people. With the love and power of Jesus, women begin to realize their value and the value of every single life no matter how small, men begin to see their responsibilities in the families, young people begin to trust in the power of the Spirit to live holy lives, and then families are changed, communities are changed, countries are changed and at last the world will be changed!
Neema began teaching baby bible class almost from the beginning. They love the songs and learning their colors and how to clap and the babies quickly learn that Jesus loves them. They are pretty good at eating their bibles too!
Neema Village Baby Bible Class
In 2024 eighty-nine people accepted Jesus and were baptized at Neema Village. Through each one of our different programs people are coming to Jesus. If you want to come to Africa and share your Christian faith, Neema Village is the exact right place for you. You can teach baby bible class, older women bible classes, nannies bible classes and men’s noon bible study. You can help with Soccer kids’ bible classes and our school bible classes. Are you serious about sharing your faith? Then Come on! One recent volunteer said, “God is all over this place!”
Neema Village Church with about 150 attending every Sunday. This was VBS Sunday above. From Maasai warriors and grey haired women who have no idea how old they are to our soccer kids people are accepting Jesus and being baptized from each of Neema’s seven programs.
Be inspired below with the video of Malikia singing “How Great Thou Art,” Mali came to Neema Village with her twin Julius at one day old. Mali is blind but music is her passion.
https://vimeo.com/315515722https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVb53Hply2E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGpSGHWMNpE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEntsFOuRmw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYZfz0T638
Sweet Stories about our babies:
The babies love to take their afternoon nap on the front porch of Neema Village.
All our babies have a tragic story or we would not have them. Many abandoned babies at Neema have now been adopted and others who had lost their mothers during the birth were saved and have now been able to return home to an extended family member. Our motto from the beginning has been “No baby belongs in an orphanage.”
Babies are brought to Neema when they have been found abandoned or the mother has died. Infants who lose their mothers in Africa are more likely to die due to un-sterile conditions, lack of proper nutrition and medical care.
Phillip (below) at four months was brought to Neema by his Maasai grandmother after the death of his mother in childbirth. Grandmother had been feeding him watered gruel. Phillip, to the right, is now a big boy in school!
Without Neema Village this sweet boy who loves to sing “Jesus Loves Me This I know,” would not be alive today.
Baby Max, pictured below, was dropped at birth into an open pit latrine. He had been laying on his side so at a few days old when he was found he had scars on the sides of his body including his eye which was completely chewed up by whatever bacteria was in the latrine. He was blind in one eye and in bad shape when brought to Neema Village.
Today Max (below) is a big boy and loved by everyone who visits Neema Village. We are praying he will be adopted soon. It is hard to hear these kinds of stories but it is not our place to judge. Women who are poor and desperate abandon their babies. Neema Village is a place of Forgiveness and Hope, forgiveness for the moms and hope for the babies
Happy Boy Max with glasses is pictured above.
Liam (below) was almost starved when he was brought to Neema. His Maasai mom had died in childbirth and he was being fed a thin porridge. Without a mom the chances of a baby surviving to age five out in the remote villages is very slim. The before and after pictures below tell the story. Liam will be going home to his village very soon but he will be going home knowing there is a man out there named Jesus and He loves me!
Neither Neema Village nor Social Welfare accepts money for adoptions.
It is always a happy day at Neema when the babies are adopted. The new mothers come and visit many times before they take the baby home. They spend time feeding the babies their bottles, changing diapers and cuddling until the baby feels comfortable with the new mom.
Only adoptions through Tanzania Social Welfare are accepted at Neema Village. Tanzania law says you must live in Tanzania for three years before you can adopt. Lawyers who assure you they can make it happen for you are not truthful and will take your money. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
Hospitals, police or Social Welfare call when a baby has been found or a mother has died and there is no one left to care for the baby. Our babies have been left on roadsides, in the bus station, in a front yard, in latrines, one in a gravel pit and two in open pit latrines and one had been there long enough that maggots were in his ear. All our babies have a tragic story or we would not have them.
We believe that what evil meant for death, God has meant for Life!
Little Deborah was so tiny she was not expected to live. She is a triplet and the tiny trio was all under three pounds when the hospital called and said if someone does not step in to help, these babies will not make it. Neema is always glad to step in. See tiny Deborah in the picture below.
This little one had to spend a few weeks in the hospital before we could bring her home to Neema. After two years at Neema, we were able to send the little triplet girls home. You can see their picture below on their going home day. Deborah is the healthy, little two year old in the middle with her triplet sisters. These girls are now big school girls and Neema Village sponsors their schooling.
The Triplet girls, Anna, Ester and Debora come home to Neema quite often and when Elliot and Zawada come too it is always fun to line them up and take their big picture with their baby pictures. The triplet girls are number one, three and four from left to right in the picture on the wall below. Elliott and Zawadi were both abandoned babies and they are number two and five from left to right.
(Our original photo below on the wall of five babies has been our business card for many years.)
The Five Babies are big school kids now! They are lined up in order of their baby photo.
Maxine’s Story:
Not expected to live, tiny Maxine, pictured below in ICU, was brought to Neema after she was found abandoned. She spent many weeks in the hospital and came home to Neema weighing only 2.4 lbs. Bekah spent many hours caring for this preemie baby and had to make emergency trips back to the hospital to save her life more than once. On one occasion the Doctor said, “This baby will not make it.” Bekah replied, “Oh yes, she will, she is as strong willed as an elephant!” And she did survive. We have now written the Maxine story into a children’s book named “Maxine, the Strong Willed Elephant.”
That is s
weet baby Maxine singing a song in the little pink shirt just before her adoption and big girl Maxine in her home with her parents.
Begun as a home for babies we quickly realized that abandoned babies were not the problem. Mothers who are poor and desperate and feel they have no option other than to abandon their babies is a big part of the problem. Pregnant women who are undernourished, have no access to medical care and have been subjected to age old customs which lead to the abnormally high death rate of women during childbirth leave motherless babies. Caring for these abandoned and motherless babies fills an immediate need but does not solve the problem.
Therefore, the mission of Neema Village has been expanded to include a wide range of programs for women. In 2014 almost 10 acres were purchased to begin a more dynamic, far reaching scope of programs designed to help women better care for their babies, survive childbirth, find ways to supplement the family income, have better nutrition, lift widows from lives of neglect and abuse and impact the surrounding Maasai villages through water wells and medical care.
With the completion of the baby home, the Blessing home, a volunteer house, 2 homes for older children, the soccer field, the Hallelujah house for special needs children, the outreach projects such as water well drilling, a Maasai girls orphanage center, GIFT Informing Girls For tomorrow, and a new computer lab and a large sewing room in the women’s center, Neema Village is now making real and lasting changes in Africa. To keep this ministry going, we still need monthly sponsorships of the babies.
Neema Village does not sell donor lists. Donor information is used solely for Neema financial records and to give receipts.